A leak on the Soyuz docked to the ISS caused the cancellation of a spacewalk [VIDEO]
(YouTube / NASA / VideoFromSpace)
The ISS discovered a coolant leak from the thermal control system of the Russian Soyuz ship, which lasted about 3 hours.
This led to the cancellation of the spacewalk of two cosmonauts.
The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was launched on September 21, 2022 from the Baikonur cosmodrome
After that, the ship docked to the Rassvet module of the International Space Station (ISS).
The mission delivered cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio.
ALERT
On December 14, a spacewalk was scheduled for cosmonauts to install a radiator on the Nauka module.
However, around 10pm, a pressure drop was detected in the ship's thermoregulation system and a coolant leak into space was recorded, which lasted several hours.
As a result, the spacewalk was cancelled.
Roscosmos believes that there was damage to the outer skin of the ship's instrument-aggregate compartment.
The leak site was inspected using the ERA manipulator, but the results of the inspection have not yet been published, a re-examination will be carried out.
The leak does not pose any threat to the crew of the station, and no case of overheating of the ship's systems was detected.
Nevertheless, the further fate of the ship is still in question, it can either be left docked or urgently returned to Earth.
Sources:
- CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/15/world/soyuz-spacecraft-leak-iss-scn/index.html
- Roscosmos: https://www.roscosmos.en/38628/
- Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/unexplained-leak-docked-soyuz-spacecraft-cancels-russian-iss-spacewalk-2022-12-15/
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